1. Field of Invention
The present invention is an improved netting for lawngrass transplantation and the method of making the netting. More particularly, the present invention is a netting for lawngrass transplantation that has a knit structure that maintains high strength characteristics but reduces the amount of material used in the netting, and the method of making this netting.
2. Description of Related Art
Vegetative lawngrass typically is propagated by transplantation of plant stolons and rhysomes and not by seed. This vegetative lawngrass includes Bermudagrasses, Zoysiagrasses (Zoysia Willd) such as Japanese lawngrass (Zoysia japonica Steud) and Mascarenegrass (Zoysia tenuifolia Willd). This vegetative lawngrass is commonly propagated to form golf lawns, home lawns, parks, gardens and other expansive grass areas.
This transplantation often occurs as follows. The lawngrass is cut in a source field into sprigs of a desired size, transported, laid on the area to be propagated, then spread as desired and watered. Other times, vegetative lawngrass sod is cut into plugs and planted on 6" to 12" centers. However, it is desirable to space the plugs at the minimum acceptable intervals to minimize the number of sod plugs and thus reduce the cost of the propagation. The spacing of the plugs results in the transplanted lawngrass being irregular until the grass grows in the gaps at the same maturity and density as the transplanted plugs.
Another method of transplanting lawngrass is solid sodding. Lawngrass sod is cut into pieces of sod to be laid side by side or is cut into a continuous strip and rolled into a big roll. This is known as "big roll" sod. Big roll sod requires a backing to maintain the integrity of the sod while rolling, transporting and installing the lawngrass. The backing should decay to avoid interference with the use of the lawngrass. However, conventional backing is plastic and not biodegradable.
Yet another method for transplanting such lawngrass is in a mat for use in the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,526 to Yoshifumi Miyachi, which is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,526 discloses a lawngrass mat that can be readily transplanted for quick growth and results in a propagation of uniform density grass. The method of transplantation provides for first cutting sprigs from the source field and fraying out lawngrass sprigs into a mat. The lawngrass mat is formed by placing the lawngrass sprigs on a base net and covering the lawngrass sprigs with a cover. The base net and cover net consists of material capable of decaying and decomposing, such as a cotton fiber. Conventional netting cannot be employed in this method because it has low linear and lateral strength and tends to deform when laid flat or rolled out. Also, the netting used in this method must decay relatively rapidly to avoid interfering with the use of the lawn.